British Court Orders U.K. Government to Review Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia
20 June 2019 - 8:20PM
Dow Jones News
By Adam Clark
A British court on Thursday ruled that the U.K. government must
reconsider its approval of military equipment exports to Saudi
Arabia, dealing a potential blow to the Middle Eastern kingdom and
some of its largest defense suppliers.
The Court of Appeal said the British government had failed to
make a systematic assessment of whether the Saudi-led coalition had
committed violations of international humanitarian law during the
conflict in Yemen. The appeal was brought by advocacy group
Campaign Against Arms Trade.
"The decision of the court today does not mean that licenses to
export arms to Saudi Arabia must immediately be suspended. CAAT did
not ask for such an order. It does mean that the U.K. government
must reconsider the matter," the court said in a summary of its
judgment.
The U.K. government has undertaken not to grant any new licenses
for the export of arms to Saudi Arabia until it has retaken its
decision or appealed the latest ruling.
"The government will now have to reconsider whether to suspend
existing export licenses and reconsider its decision to continue to
grant licenses. Our client hopes the government will reconsider
quickly and will decide that no further licenses should be
granted," said Rosa Curling, solicitor of law firm Leigh Day, which
acted on behalf of CAAT.
Britain's largest weapons-maker BAE Systems PLC (BA.LN) is part
of a joint venture which makes the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets
used by Saudi Arabia, alongside the German and Spanish arms of
Airbus SE (AIR.FR) and Italy's Leonardo SpA (LDO.MI).
BAE shares at 0940 GMT were up 1.5%, broadly flat from prior to
the ruling.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@dowjones.com;
@AdamDowJones
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 20, 2019 06:05 ET (10:05 GMT)
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